Best Twitch apps for Windows 10

As is often the case, the developer community comes to the rescue when Windows has been inexplicably left out in the cold. Third-party Twitch apps are common on other platforms, too, but with Windows 10 we've got the added bonus of universal apps for our PCs, tablets and phones.

There are some great choices out there, and below we've rounded up the Twitch apps for Windows 10 that I think you need to know about.

Unstream

If you want the best experience from Twitch on your Windows 10 device then you can do a lot worse than Unstream. It's pretty fantastic all around.

Unlike some other apps which try to keep the Twitch color scheme in place, Unstream has a sexy dark theme available and modern styling to fit right in with Windows 10. It ticks off the bases you need, allowing you to browse by featured streams, top games, top channels and find top videos on demand.

There are a few settings you can change to make your experience a little more to your own liking. Choose which view you want to see when you open the app, make the live tile transparent, set default quality settings for both Wi-Fi and cellular data, tweak the chat and decide on the live tile refresh rate.

Better yet, it does this all on desktop and Mobile. The viewing experience is pretty good, too, allowing you to go full screen and immerse yourself or keep it windowed. It's an app that's hard to fault. Unstream is free to download for phones and PC, with an in-app purchase available to get rid of the ads and support the developer.

8Stream

Another long-standing favorite is 8Stream, and another that has been refreshed for Windows 10. It doesn't quite have everything that Unstream does, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take a look at it. Especially as it's free if you're OK with ads.

You can browse by top games and channels, as well as featured streams, and you get a light or dark theme to choose from. You can also change the language and default quality settings, and it even has notifications (though those are currently labelled as beta).

8Stream is a solid app on both PC and mobile with a full screen viewing mode with or without chat. It's free to download with an in-app purchase available to get rid of the ads.

Twitch Viewer

Twitch Viewer is a no-frills approach to watching Twitch streams on Windows 10. It still allows you to sign in to engage in chat and have full screen video going on, but there's not a lot in the way of extra features or settings.

There is a dark theme, which I love, but it's almost Twitch Unplugged. If you just want to get in and watch some streams without the fluff, give it a try. It's free and ad-free, and also available on phones — which might be all you need to know.

LiveBeard

If there's an award for best app name in this list, here's your hands-down winner: LiveBeard. It's worth downloading on that basis of the name alone. It's not quite as polished as some of the others in this list, but it's still a work in progress.

You can theme it up Light or Dark or just set it to match your system, as well as grab featured and top content as curated by Twitch. There aren't many settings to dabble with, but it does have notifications and you can get it on your phone. Fire up the beard and give it a whirl — it's free and available on phones as well.

zTwitch

zTwitch is a great all-round app for Twitch on Windows 10 that covers off all the basics, looks great and has some more advanced features to please such as picture-in-picture.

It also has a functional live tile and support for push notifications so you're never too far away from knowing when your favorite streamers are live. You'll get access to chat, too, which not every app provides, and it's also free to download assuming you're OK with ads.